Jendra Faine Jendra is honest, crude, and devoted. She won’t coddle Alaise, but isn’t cruel or malicious either. He is a tool for a purpose, to her. He rarely sees emotion from her. Alaise will know of the Dragon Knights, there was an order of them in Sehe as well. Their service is to the dragon that they have sworn an oath to, and secondly to dragons in general. They will not kill dragons, unless absolutely necessary or by order of their liege. Jendra lives and dies by that code. As a Dree, she is naturally gifted in arcane magic. She uses them regularly, as if by habit and not by choice. She can make things move about her, change colors, and even summon small items to her. Magic comes naturally to her, similar to the High Elves. Her slain partner was her tracker and guide, a Eurik from Bonehammer south of her lands. They never engaged the band of mage hunters because they weren’t sure it was them, and didn’t have the proper backup. Being stalled in Gravelback, instead of being given appropriate support was an obvious sign of discrimination on the dwarves’ behalf. If they’d given her support like she’d requested, such an event would have been averted. She only survived because the leader, Lizzi, came at her head on. After killing Fehdin, she fled back to the library. By the time she followed her, it was apparent the librarians had been poisoned, then had their throats cut. One of the librarians, Bagnaeg Flintcoat, was gone and the things missing from his room. She thinks he was paid off or was in the pockets of the Corrivians to begin with. Records showed he had only been working there for a few months. On the trip back to Dree. She would be quite honest about her people. The Dree are a brutal people who do whatever they must to win and thrive, that is their code. She doesn’t abide by needless brutality, her code is for Lord Shrave. She took a vow long ago to kill all of the mage hunters, and is still perplexed why Lord Shrave will not openly go to war with Lady Corrive. Outside of being lovers, Corrive seems an open invitation to war. When asked, Jendra seems to have knowledge of complex politics about them, much of which goes over Alaise’s head. She says names of their children, and even some other green dragons, which also plays into the mechanics. She, with Alaise’s help, manages to find a fishing boat and get them back to Dree. If given grief by locals, she becomes stern and violent quite easily. Over the course of weeks, she not only tells him everything she knows about Corrive but also about the oath of vengeance. She also seems uncertain whether or not she will live with her failure, but seems fine with either consequence. The oath is all that matters to her. Givg came back with them, more than happy to escort Jendra. Since it was voluntarily, Jendra gives Givg her freedom but in return Givg only asks that Jendra be her master. Jendra, confusingly, complies (freedom to a slave is not something given lightly in Dree). Before letting him go, Jendra teaches him many sword techniques. She also gives him a sending stone. She hopes to work with him to send her reliable intel. She is giving him a valuable magic item, worth thousands of gold, and can communicate to him through the stone. What Alaise has learned The group, known as “The Fluttering Vultures”, are known for their deception and spend most of their time slaughtering mages of nearby realms and bringing back prisoners to be interrogated. Their leader, Lizzi Nethercloud, is a notoriously good shapeshifter. Some claim she is of some ancient shifter race, and can claim the forms of humanoids as well as animals. Other say these are lies, and she is a druid capable of killing by anyone who tries hard enough. Vallah Julbask is often misperceived to be an entertainer, something she uses to her advantage. She is an excellent shapeshifter in her own right, and a member of the defiled druid circle of corrive. Ceshith Haldrehk was a slave, raised by Corrive, but escaped at an early age and traveled far to the west. She came back as an adult, now a slaver, coming for money and little else. Born and partially raised in Corrive, she came back willingly and with much glee which shows something of her sadistic personality. Hithdra Ridz is a corrupted elf of Corrive, and expert marksman. She has little time for banter, and is a skilled archer. However, as Alaise travels he soon finds they are not the only mage hunters in Corrive. They are but one band of hundreds, who scours the lands and those nearby looking for opportunities to spill blood. Hunting them is like hunting needles in a haystack. He would, and probably does, have more success killing any mage hunters he finds. Their tactics are varied, in Corrive they have less use for subterfuge and more use for interrogation. During his travels, Alaise learns the number one enemy of Corrive is not external at all, but internal. Only after a month or two among them, he finds out the Yuan-Ti as secretly supporting the resistance. On the east coast of Corrive, the Yuan-Ti are well established and have been attempting to overthrow Lady Corrive for some time. While their human-sacrificing practices might not be beneficial, their goals are to overthrow the government. [Alaise’s thoughts on this] He also discovers first hand, the Corrive army is far from invincible. Lady Corrive’s goals to seem impenetrable from the outside, and efforts from both the resistance and Yuan-Ti, have left her internal armies suffering. From the outside the country seems heavily fortified, from the inside it is slowly, or maybe quickly, collapsing. The resistance says they believe that Lady Corrive seeks new blood and resources, and is working constantly against Lord Shrave to collapse his empire than she can absorb it into her own. Meanwhile, she has begun striking bargains allies from around the realms to help her in her goals. Alaise sees that dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans are put to work for their natural crafts in Corrive. They seem to, aside from slaves, have a wide variety of exports that are smuggled out so that countries with better sensibilities have no idea how their products are made. The humans come in two types natively, the rageful warriors and the animal whisperers. Hobgoblins are everywhere. They have mention of two other slave empires, the Dree who deal mostly in large amounts of weak slaves traded to Corrive for healthier ones, and the bullywug empire of Vinarr. Several other realms have smaller operations but I haven’t delved into those yet. Corrive likes the healthy and skilled slaves, Vinarr’s Vemk empire prefers strong slaves, Vinarr’s Bullywug empire takes whatever it can get, and Dree will trade for weak or unhealthy slave who will become undead soldiers soon enough. The Dree view unhealthy slave transport as a version of logistics that doesn’t require them to haul around the dead bodies. If the slaves die on the way there, then have the living ones do it for them. Lorie’s Journal Written in Dwarvish, it took Givg’s help to transcribe the journal, and it took several days journey to Dree to do it. Her reading is ungodly slow. Her dwarf speaking and common speaking might be better than what others anticipated from her, but her writing is awful. After a time she manages to translate the last entries. "I hope that the elven bard, whatever the hell he decides his names is, learns his trades on animals as well as people, that will serve him well. I should give him this ring to help him in his travels. [Ring of Animal Influence] Helios is brave, and fierce, but his temperament will get him into trouble. Should I get around to it, this elven chain shirt might save him from death one day. [Elven Chain Shirt +1] Nikon has had an unlucky go of things. His family forsook him, he was cast out by his people. Maybe this stone of luck will one day help him find his fortune. [Stone of Good luck] But most of all, my nephew Alaise must know this world is not on his side. He will surely die out here without something to warn him of the dangers, much too naive. I should have never let him come. This longsword might help him in our travels. I think it is time. [Longsword of Warning +1] I get some interesting vibes from Lizzi and her crew. Not to be trusted, perhaps. But no less than that Dree woman who was chasing them. Who can tell. I must find a way to help Givg, and her people, but also prevent mine from becoming like theirs. I don’t know if the process takes one generation, two, or three, but I fear the process is at hand. Some foul magic has been at work in the realms and I hope to see it destroyed before all is lost."